Richard Petrie

Richard Petrie did not take a straight line to becoming a marketing expert for architects; instead, he was a professional sportsman for 12 years. After playing international cricket for New Zealand, Richard became a coach, not of sports teams but of business owners. That's because what it takes to win is less about the specific industry and more about mindset. Despite getting an “A” for marketing, Richard Petrie came out of university with no idea of how to sell anything. So rather than take a junior marketing role, he opted to go out and learn to sell. When he entered the workforce, Richard sold copiers, IT systems and stadium corporate boxes. His patience grew short working for others so he took a deep breath and plunged into his first business selling mental skills training to sales teams in London. Just when his business was about to take off, his family decided they wanted to move back to New Zealand. They did and he was able to restart in his home country. In 2004, Richard attended a conference in Dallas, Texas, with a friend which inspired him to become a marketer. After eight years of working with all sorts of businesses from private investigators, to real estate agents, furniture shops, uniform suppliers, home builders, accountants and lawyers, he was hired by his first architect. His client's success together with Richard's connecting with Enoch Sears and Eric Bobrow to form the Architect Marketing Institute took him onto a much more focused path. Nowadays, 75 percent of his time is spent solely on helping architects win better projects. Richard Petrie is married, with three teenage children, and lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and despite rubbing shoulders with design experts daily, still has very poor design sense.